Rockford, ILL

Mon. morning around we bade our friends Paul & Mary goodbye. We will see them again in the fall. We continued west out of the mountains and onto the farmlands of Indiana. Mid afternoon we arrived at Charlie & Almeda Gant's near Anderson, Indiana. Charlie & Almeda live just 4 house down from us in Buttonwood Bay. We set up between the horse barn and their house. They live on the same acreage that their daughter & son-in-law live. We had a nice visit with them. They showed us around the Anderson area. Anderson used to have many manufacturing facilities that were connected to the auto industry they are no longer in operation. They also took us to the headquarters of Bill & Gloria Gaither. They do not offer tours of the recording studio or grounds but they do have a rather large gift shop where you can buy their Cd's, DVDs and much more. Anderson is just a few miles northeast from Indianapolis.
We departed their place around noon on Tues. and went about an hour west to Lebanon, Indiana were our friends Ray & Ida Vanausdall live. While there we set up in their drive way right next to their house. Ida fixed a delicious ham loaf supper for us and we played eucker all evening. Wed. morning we went to Judy's cafe for breakfast and then drove about an hour northeast to Kokomo, Indiana. In Kokomo we took an tour of the Kokomo stained glass factory. It was a very interesting tour as we saw them pour the hot glass from the kiln onto a table where it was turned with an iron fork 2 or 3 times. It then went through a roller that resulted in a sheet of hot glass about 3ft. by 6 ft. It then went through a cooling oven where it is cut into 36in.X32in. pieces ready for shipment. We also saw a 2 people blowing glass. They were making roundells about 15 in. across. After leaving there we drove about 15 miles northwest of Kokomo to the farming community of Galveston. Several people we know from Buttonwood Bay live in that area. We stopped at the farm Bob & Mary Ketchel. Mary wasn't home but Bob was. He took us a nice tour through the farming area there. We stopped at Dan & Barbara Ketchel's and visited them for a few minutes. We then went into Galveston where Bob bought us lunch. After lunch we drove around some more and went by Grissom Air Force Base. The end of the runway is about 1&1/2 mile East of Bob & Mary's farm. It was then back to Lebanon for another meal and more eucker practice.
This morning it was up and on the road by 8:30AM. West into Ill. on I-74 and then north on I-39 to Rockford where we plan visit with Bud & Dorothy Nicholas before heading on toward Hazen Bay in the morning. Since entering Indiana we have seen some very nice farm land. We have not seen corn bigger than six inches. however. They say things are a little behind this year. Bob Ketchel's corn was the best we have seen. He said they finished planting soybeans a couple of days prior to our arrival. They had a nice rain through much of the area on Wed evening so we have not seen anyone in the field since then.